Sunday, January 14, 2007

What's going on with the "fans" at McKale?

Oregon State basketball coach Jay John did not bring his wife, Lisa to last week's UA-OSU game at McKale Center, in part, because of what John termed were "problems with UA fans'' behind the Beavers' bench.

Those problems were manifest again last week when OSU's Kyle Jeffers had a post-game spat with several UA fans, which resulted in Jeffers being detained by police officers. No charges were filed.

A day later, John, a Salpointe Catholic High School and UA grad, told the Corvallis Gazette-Times that he will no longer permit his team to walk through the northeast entrance/exit to the McKale Center court.

The sad part is that John and his family are longtime Tucsonans; even though the Beavers haven't been competitive at McKale, isolated pockets of UA fans have treated them with no respect.

Is a little civility too much to ask in the sacred game of college hoops?

Or how about this UA fan who was kicked out of the game for standing up the entire game and refusing to sit? All this makes it hard for me to understand what the UA was thinking when they put the students so close to the floor for basketball games. I don't mind a little good-natured ribbing of opposing teams and players, but this mind-spirited stuff has got to stop. Say what you will about the gray-hairs who hold season tickets, at least they appreciate a good game and don't try to throw themselves into the mix.Wilma and I can relate to the fans sitting (or trying to) behind the nut who refused to sit down. Our season tickets were behind a guy (much older than the student body) who popped up out of his chair for any little reason. When asked to sit down, he refused, insisting instead that everyone else rise in support. Just because the Lemonade Guy ("It's so lemon-y") is working his way up the aisle, that's no reason to bounce up....